Abstract

JAUCK, Daniela Eva  and  PERALTA, Olga Alicia. Symbolic Comprehension of Digital Images that Represent Goal Directed Actions. Av. Psicol. Latinoam. [online]. 2017, vol.35, n.3, pp.601-614. ISSN 1794-4724.  https://doi.org/10.12804/revistas.urosario.edu.co/apl/a.5070.

Electronic devices are increasingly present in our everyday lives. These devices are starting to be used in communication and learning at very early ages. Al though parents and educators suppose that small chil dren understand the symbolic function of their images, incipient but growing research in the area has not yet produced clear results. The aim of this study was to investigate whether young children understand that the images provided by a tablet represent actions that can occur in reality. We presented to 24-, 30- and 36-month--old children sequences of images of everyday actions without showing the results of those actions. Then the children had to choose real objects that exhibit the result of the action that had been presented. We found that 30-month and 36-month-old, but not 24-month-old children, understood not only the actions themselves but that the images they saw represented real actions, correctly choosing the objects that showed the results of the actions presented. The results of the study are discus sed with respect to the comprehension of goal-directed actions and regarding the symbolic comprehension of the images representing such actions.

Keywords : Symbolic comprehension; images; actions.

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